A general practice for accessing a beach from a landward area such as a dwelling site, parking lot, road, campground or any other landward area, is passage over pressure treated wooden walkways. Where there is a sand dune present, some wooden walkways simply rest on the dune and others are supported by a wooden piles that penetrate the dune itself and usually have a square cross section. It has been found that current bridging structures can themselves create erosion sites, which while usually protecting dunes, can result in dune breaches, which if not repaired widen, and eventually result in substantial sand dune destruction.
In addition, when beaches are subject to heavy surf and tidal surges, sand dune walkways and bridges of current designs are frequently destroyed and washed away. Moreover, dune walkways of current design tend to interfere with natural phenomenon that encourage the accretion of sand. This is because current walkways both retain sand particles on top of planks which are used for walking surfaces and create conditions underneath the walkways which can accelerate wind speed and thus cause local erosion beneath the walkways.